EXPOSED: KPC Officials Rigging Multimillion-Shilling Tank Tender for Favored Contractor

An investigation by Kenya Insights has uncovered what appears to be a deliberate scheme by Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) senior management to manipulate a significant multimillion-shilling tender in favor of a well-connected contractor, raising serious questions about corruption within the state corporation.

The tender in question, designated as KPC/PU/OT-163/PROJECTS/NBI/24-25, was announced on March 11, 2025, for the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) of three new 10,000 m³ storage tanks and five additional tanks of various capacities, along with flow rate enhancement at Kisumu, Eldoret, and Nakuru depots.

Sources familiar with the matter have revealed that the tender specifications were deliberately crafted to favor Weld-con Engineering, effectively shutting out qualified local contractors from the competitive bidding process.

The tender closed on April 9, 2025, amid protests from multiple local companies that were systematically excluded.

“This is a clear case of tender manipulation,” said a contractor who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. “The requirements were so restrictive that only their pre-selected company could qualify. We’ve seen this pattern before with Weld-con Engineering benefiting from similarly tailored tenders.”

Our investigation found that despite numerous formal complaints lodged with KPC management and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), officials at the state corporation proceeded with the tender process without addressing the concerns raised by local contractors.

The scandal implicates several top officials at KPC, including the Managing Director, General Manager for Procurement, and General Manager for Infrastructure, who are alleged to have received kickbacks from the favored contractor to ensure the tender specifications remained restrictive.

This is not the first procurement scandal to rock KPC. In 2023, the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) nullified a contract after discovering that KPC had issued award letters to two different bidders for the same tender.

In another case, the PPARB had to intervene after KPC disqualified a local company on spurious grounds, claiming the company had submitted a power of attorney addressed to KERRA when it was actually addressed to KPC.

“It has become a pattern at KPC,” revealed a source within the procurement sector.

“The senior management team has developed sophisticated methods to circumvent procurement laws while appearing to follow due process.”

More troubling is the alleged corruption of judicial processes through what insiders refer to as the “Jurispesa” system, where court orders obtained by companies to stay the tender opening date are mysteriously overturned at the last minute without proper legal grounds or procedures.

Industry observers note that the KPC Board has failed to hold the management accountable, despite mounting evidence of procurement irregularities.

The Managing Director, as the accounting officer, bears direct responsibility for all tendering processes and awards.

“Why should Kenyans lose out on tenders because of a few corrupt individuals?” questioned another contractor affected by the restrictive tendering. “These officials should have been fired long ago for incompetence and collusion.”

As this story develops, industry watchers predict that despite the mounting evidence of irregularities, the lucrative tender will likely be awarded to Weld-con Engineering, further entrenching the culture of corruption that has plagued KPC’s procurement processes.